Laura Kate

Watercolor Wednesday: Blaukopf Online Learning

Posted on November 1, 2023 by Laura Kate

I gave myself a gift by purchasing another Blaukopf tutorial through Teachable. This one appealed to me because it featured ink and watercolor.

https://learn.shariblaukopf.com/p/sketching-a-french-village-scene

For the first lesson, Shari walked us through the mixes we would be using throughout the course. My swatches came out nicely, despite the fact that I had no Hooker green paint and substituted Winsor green.

Our first painting was of a balcony scene in a Normandy village featuring lots of stone and pots of plants perched on a wall.

Shari suggested that we avoid pencil lines and draw straightaway with the ink pen. I am using Pigma Micron with archival ink.

Not too bad. The basic shapes and textures look as expected.

First wash.

I was so focused on finishing that I didn’t take any other images of intermediate steps.

Here is my final ink and watercolor painting of the balcony scene.

While I didn’t have fun throughout the entire experience, I got re-introduced to my watercolor paint and had enough fun for a Wednesday.

colorwork, knitting

Cast-Off Monday

Posted on October 30, 2023 by Laura Kate

Shaking things up a little bit, with a Cast-Off Monday post. Since I have failed utterly to document my progress on this knit, I’ll start at the end of my work, and just mention the beginning.

This colorful wrap is a result of raiding my stash. Much earlier this year, I pulled full and partial balls that sorta went together. After matching the resulting yardage up with a pattern, yarn and copy of said pattern were shoved into a bag. Eventually I had five bags of future projects hanging in my yarn closet.

It was time to start this one. Sorrento Wrap is designed by Sian Price-White and calls for two colors of yarn – dark and light.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sorrento-wrap

https://images4-g.ravelrycache.com/uploads/CloudForestStudio/674348453/webp/20200114_083517_small2.webp#jpg

I had selected five different yarns for this project, with the intention of working the extra colors into various sections of the shawl.

Almost immediately I discarded the rayon blend red (in the upper left of the bowl) when it proved to be too flimsy. All other yarns, with the exception of the warm pink yarn, are by KnitPicks. The two blues are Gloss in fingering weight. The multi is a Stroll hand-painted. I’ve forgotten where I got the warm pink fingering weight.

After I finished my cast-off today, I stepped outside for a quick photo shoot.

Diamond and chevron sections are visible here. That diamond stranded section gave me trouble while reading from the row-by-row instructions in the pattern.

I ended up charting it out.

Another modification made was to add a few matching beads to the chevron border.

The section with the light blue stripes features diamond mosaic stitch pattern. That was my favorite. I’ll want to work this mosaic pattern into a future project.

Fresh off the needle, the shawl looks pretty awkward. Once I’ve blocked it and woven in ends, I’ll get another photo, then decide if I like it or not.

knitting

Friday Finish: Summer Smoke Biome Hat

Posted on October 13, 2023 by Laura Kate

I’m a slow poke on this reveal. I actually cast off the Biome last week. Here he is:

Making this hat took a bit more work than I had expected, and while fun at times, it also was tedious at times. The chart was generated by an algorithm, subject to a few parameters I selected from the designer’s file generator. The resulting file was problematic to print. I also felt that the color changes were too far apart, causing really long floats. So, I copied the printout on to normal sized graph paper and inserted “sprigs.” My personal rule was to allow no more than seven stitches before inserting the contrasting color.

Here I am enjoying Summer Smoke Biome on a warm but blustery fall afternoon.

I discovered that the hat is warm and soft. It sort of hugs the head gently. To see how it would look on a child, I put the hat on a stone model – my garden statute Dicken.

This hat is so cool, I believe all family members will want one.

If you’d like to try knitting from a randomly-generated chart, please visit Biome and download the pattern. It’s Free. Then share your results with designer Rianna Suen.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/biome-hat

knitting

Works in Progress Wednesday

Posted on September 27, 2023 by Laura Kate

For the past several weeks I have had been knitting on two projects.

Let’s start with the Arrowhead Lace Interrupted cardigan.

As of last week, this project has been sent to Time Out. Here is where I am so far.

It’s looking pretty good. However, during the last repeat of the arrowhead lace sequence, I discovered pattern row 1 was short by two loops. And in my efforts to “fix” it, I lost three more loops!. Gah!

I’m having a much better time knitting the Biome hat. https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/biome-hat The biggest challenge for me has been reading a chart that has 120 stitches per row with no pattern repeats.

After struggling to keep track of where I was on the long row, I decided to stack the two sheets together, held on a clipboard with a purple strip of paper to mark the current row. This proved to be much more manageable.

When I reach the end of the first sheet, I simply insert the second under the purple place holder. Using this practice, I easily completed 20 rows of the 50-row chart.

Here’s a better look at the Biome, in sunlight.

I’m calling the hat Summer Smoke, because the North Woods of Wisconsin was blanketed in smoke from Canada while I was visiting this summer. I purchased the yarn at North Wind Fiber and Book store, in Spooner, WI.

I think this hat looks pretty cool so far. It will go to Henry on his birthday in November. I expect there will be requests from other family members for Biome hats once they get a look at it.

painting

Watercolor Wednesday Tutorial

Posted on September 13, 2023September 13, 2023 by Laura Kate

Last Wednesday in Open Studio, Cheryl introduced the group to the work of Soon Y. Warren, a painter who excels at creating light and texture in her watercolor works. Cheryl has taken a workshop with Soon and raves about her.

https://soonwarren.com/

To get us started, Cheryl sent her own version of Soon’s Orange as a reference.

To achieve the effect of bright light on the orange, the artist applies masking fluid on the areas of white. After the painting dries, the mask is scrubbed off and final details are painted in.

I need practice using masking fluid, so I went along with the instructions. It was not a difficult lesson, except for removing the mask. I had to scrape vigorously with fingers, fingernails (go wash my hands and come back) and more fingernails. Ultimately, all the masking fluid came away, but in the process, I rubbed some dirt and/or paint into some places on the white paper where the mask had been. (sigh.)

Fortunately, the areas with the worst stains were pretty well covered with an application of Dr Ph Martin’s Bleed Proof White.

Here is my finished study. It will make a nice greeting card.

I chose a different palette for my version: W&N French ultramarine blue, Thalo blue, Winsor lemon, transparent orange, and permanent alizarin crimson. A little salt and paint spatter added texture.

If you enjoy light-filled, transparent watercolor paintings, check out Soon Warren’s site.